Coronavirus: UAE reports 234 Covid-19 cases, 127 recoveries, no deaths

The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention on Friday reported 234 cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus, along with 127 recoveries and no deaths.

Over 105.9 million PCR tests have been conducted in the country so far.

The new cases were detected through 332,243 additional tests.

The total number of cases in UAE as on December 17 are 743,586, while total recoveries stand at 738,387. The death toll now stands at 2,151.

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Infection rates are soaring across South Africa as a result of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, but fewer people have died or required hospital treatment compared to previous waves of Covid, health officials said on Friday.

On Wednesday, South Africa recorded the highest number of infections the nation has ever seen in the pandemic, driven by the rapid spread of Omicron, said Michelle Groome, of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

“The hospitalisations are not increasing at such a dramatic rate,” she told a news conference.

Meanwhile, The EU’s drug regulator on Thursday allowed member states to use Pfizer’s new Covid pill ahead of its formal approval, as an emergency measure to curb an Omicron-fuelled wave.

Pills like those by US pharma giant Pfizer and rival Merck have been hailed as groundbreaking because they do not need to be injected or taken intravenously, making them more accessible.

Pfizer said this week that its Paxlovid pill reduced hospitalisations and deaths in vulnerable people by almost 90 per cent.

• UAE